Education - Class Flashcards
What is the percentage of students getting 5+ if their disadvantaged and if their not?
Disadvantaged: 36.7%
Other: 64.7%
What do Penny and Francis (2010) argue?
Social class is the strongest predictor of educational achievement in the UK
Has the class gap changed at all in the last 10 years?
Not by much
What is the evidence that poverty is linked to educational underachievement?
90% of failing schools are in deprived areas
The class gap in achievement grows wider as children get older
2015 almost a 30% difference in achieving 5A* - C GCSEs between disadvantaged and other students
Before compulsory education 50% of WC stayed in full time education 16+, 90% of MC
What was a popular theory in the 1960s to explain the class achievement gap?
Material factors
What does material deprivation mean?
Lack of available resources, such as adequate income and housing
How can material deprivation affect achievement?
Waldfogel and Washbrook (2010) housing - overcrowding means difficult to do homework, cold/damp causes ill health and absenteeism, temporary education so moving schools
Diet and health - bad diets mean higher sickness, tiredness and difficulty concentrating
Educational resources - internet, books, school trips, uniform (self-esteem)
What is cultural deprivation?
Underachievement due to socialisation beyond the school
What was J.W.B Douglas (1964) theory on cultural deprivation?
Middle class children received more attention in their early years providing a foundation for high attainment (based on questionnaires to over 5000 parents)
What are the two external factors argued for the class gap?
Material factors
Cultural explanations
What is Barry Sugarman (1970) theory?
Working class subculture is fatalistic, present-time orientated and concerned with immediate gratification placing WC kids at a disadvantage MC subculture is future-time orientated and deferred gratification stance which equates examination success
What is the contemporary support for Douglas’ theory?
See and Davies (2012) echo Douglas - lack of parental involvement and low expectations hinder children. MC parents visit school frequently and encourage them to stay in education for as long as possible
What is the contemporary support for Sugarman’s theory?
Sodha and Margo (2010) similar attitudes found by Sugarman 40 years after
What does Basil Bernstein (1971) say about the importance of language in the class gap?
Most MC children have been socialised in restricted and elaborated codes, WC children are limited to restricted code
As schools use the elaborated code, WC children are at a disadvantage
What does Pierre Bourdieu (1984) argue about the importance of cultural capital to the class gap?
MC children are socialised into the ‘habitus’ school values and teaches so they have an advantage over WC children, who’s culture is not valued
What does Alice Sullivan (2001) say about cultural capital?
She agrees with Bourdieu as her questionnaires of 465 students in 4 schools concluded with the pupil with the most cultural capital being the children of graduates
What are the problems with cultural explanations?
Research evidence (validity and reliability)
Attitudes second to material factors?
Higher education might not be viable
Postmodernism - is class still relevant?
What are the internal factors for class achievement?
Teacher perceptions Curriculum Hidden curriculum Organisation of teaching and learning Student identities and subculture
Who argues teacher perceptions dictated outcomes for class?
Becker (1971)
What was Becker (1971)s theory?
Interviews with 60 high school teachers discovered they have an ‘ideal pupil’ that others were judged against, and middle class students tended to fit the model better There were also stereotypes about working class children being badly behaved
How is the national curriculum linked to class disparity of grades?
Made by the government (mainly middle class) and what they believe is important
Lack of representation or poor representation of people from lower classes
Subjects offered to students may differ
Cultural capital in tests
What does Wheeler et al (2019) say about curriculum?
Much less sports both in school and outside school are offered to children of lower classes
What did Cooper and Dunne (2000) find in their study?
Some children are struggling in tests due to a lack of cultural capital and therefore understanding or connecting to the questions compared with middle class children
What evidence (apart from Cooper and Dunne) is there for testing struggles for WC?
Economic and Social Research Council found in a sample of 10-11 year olds that there is a social class effect which means some WC don’t show competences they have
How are people trying to help support curriculum problems for class?
Teachers provide a ‘diverse’ curriculum (gender and ethnicity)
October 2020 Education Select Committee was taking evidence on white pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds doing worse
Ofsted use ‘cultural capital’
What did Gillborn and Youdell (2001) find out about the organisation of teaching and learning?
Stereotypical notions of students used to stream kids, and teachers see WC (and black) pupils as less likely to succeed
This means they are only entered into lower tier GCSEs, and don’t have the same knowledge as those from higher tiers
What did Keddie find about the organisation of teaching and learning?
Teachers teach differently in higher streams and lower streams, and gave higher stream children more and different types of knowledge to help them succeed
What does Prof. Diane Reay say about the curriculum?
The historical purpose of education was to control the working class so a curriculum which doesn’t work for white WC is currently used as it was modified from the old one
In what ways do the organisation of teaching and learning effecting class in schools?
Streaming children (warming up, cooling down) leading to the self-fulfilling prophecy
Restricted access to the curriculum
Peer groups forming anti and pro school subcultures depending on where they go
How does the hidden curriculum affect class achievement?
Uniform - WC might not be able to afford it, lowers self-esteem, not go into school, etc.
Prizes - MC can do more work outside school (tutoring, HW) whilst WC kids might not be able to (pro and anti school)
What did Lacey (1970) find in his study of a middle class grammar school?
Streams differentiate the students but cause polarisation and the streams to go to extremes of anti and pro school culture
Who agreed with Lacey’s results?
Ball (1981)
What did Mac an Ghaill (1994) find in his study?
He found two pro-school subcultures: Academic Achievers from skilled manual labour WC backgrounds who focused in English, maths, sciences
New Enterprisers who studied business and computing with school-industry links
What does Archer et al (2010) say about class and achievement?
Working class pupils felt they’d have to change how they presented to be successful ‘Nike’ styles were disapproved of by the schools but gave pupils symbolic capital and self-worth
